Ethiopia : US Imposes Sanctions

United States authorities have announced visa restrictions for Ethiopian and Eritrean government officials and members of security forces over atrocities tied to a six-month-long conflict in northern Ethiopia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, May 23, 2021 also announced that the U.S. has imposed wide-ranging restrictions on economic and security assistance to Ethiopia after parties to the conflict in Tigray “took no meaningful steps to end hostilities." The U.S. will continue with humanitarian assistance and other critical aid to Ethiopia including health, food, education, human rights, democracy, and other areas. 
Prior to these decisions, President Joe Biden’s administration had repeatedly called for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean and Amhara forces from the Tigray region and asked for the African Union to help resolve the crisis, to no avail. Thousands of people have died since November in the conflict in Ethiopia's northern region. At least two million people are reported to have been displaced. Aljazeera reports that the situation has since devolved into a full-scale humanitarian crisis with reports of extra-judicial killings, sexual violence, and indiscriminate shelling of some towns in the Tigray region. Eritrean troops have also been blamed for mass killings and large scale attacks on civilians. 
Though Ethiopia’s military prosecutors have convicted three soldiers of rape and pressed charges against 28 others suspected of killing civilians in the ong...